trivia answers: week 1 of 2022
2 Truths and a Lie
Which one of these things did not happen during the first week of 2022?
A. The furnace went out when the temps were below freezing
B. The pigs chewed through a wire that made their waterers freeze
C. One of our rooster's combs got frostbite
If you thought the lie was
that our furnace went out in sub zero temperatures….
We have two furnaces, sort of. One is a geothermal which does a great job of warming and cooling the house if it’s above 20-30 degrees Fahrenheit. If it’s colder than that we have a high efficiency propane furnace that “helps” the geo keep the house warm.
Last weekend there was a cold snap that sent the temps below zero and a gusty wind that seems to suck the heat out of the house. It wasn’t until Sunday morning that we figured out the high efficiency furnace was “locked out” due to not starting. We got it fixed by that evening but it was kind of a chilly weekend.
If you said the lie was the pig waterers
froze…..
Wednesday was a nice day if you like below zero temps and wind gusts peaking above 50 mph.
It was an especially nice day to do chores but that’s the life of a farmer. The hogs, cattle, and chickens have lots of bedding so I wasn’t too worried about them being too cold, but I sure was. So you can imagine my joy (insert sarcasm here) when I went to check the hogs’ waterer and found that they were all frozen solid!!!!!
Ugh, this happens sometimes, and it’s usually cold when it does happen, but I was really hoping it wouldn’t happen.
The first thing I had to do was figure out why the heaters stopped working. I keep a radio on in the barn to let me know if the power goes out but, that’s on a different circuit than the heaters (obviously a serious flaw to my plan I know). I went to the breaker box, found that the breaker was tripped to the heaters and tried to reset it.
Nothing….
I tried again…. Nothing.
I was puzzled. I went to check the electric plug in for all three waterers, unplugged them, and then went back to the breaker box.
This time the breaker worked and the power was restored.
Except that the heaters were all unplugged. So I went back to plug them all back in. I was thinking it got too cold, drew too much power, and tripped the 20 amp breaker. I was wrong.
I plugged the first one in, no problem. The second one in, no problem. But the third one blew the breaker once I plugged it in.
It was then that I saw a break in the metal conduit that olds the wires to the heater for the third waterer. A hog at rubbed against a pole, the conduit is attached to the pole, the rubbing caused the conduit to detach from it’s coupling, and that caused a sharp edge to form and wear a hole in the insulation. In short, there was an electric short in the wire.
It’s getting dark.
I get the electric tape, some pliers, and a few extra zip ties (who doesn’t need zip ties?) and get the short fixed.
Once it was safe I plugged the heater back in and gave it till morning to thaw. All told the hogs were without water for less than a day.
Now I have a lamp plugged into the same circuit as the heaters that faces towards the house. I can see this lamp, day or night, from the kitchen window. I will know if the power goes out to the heaters again.(and we check them every day too).
If you thought the lie was
that our rooster developed frostbite…..
It’s not that it can’t happen or hasn’t happened in the past but, as I mentioned earlier, our chickens are pretty protected in the barn from the wind and have lots of places to keep warm. (chicken feathers provide lots of insulation and, as long as they are out of the wind, they keep pretty warm).
We do prefer chicken breeds with smaller combs but some of our flock do have a stereotypical big, floppy comb and beard.
Thanks for playing.
